Toppled trees and debris filling many streets created a mess for Naperville residents to wake up to Tuesday morning, following a severe storm that brought multiple tornados to neighboring cities Monday night.
Sounding the alarm
The city’s tornado alarm sounded and alerts went off on smartphones warning residents throughout the Chicago area of a possible tornado until about 9:45pm.
“We heard a lot of wind, a lot of thunder and lightning, down in the basement,” said Naperville resident Martina Olivo. “You could feel the walls shaking.”
After the sirens subsided, Olivo said she came outside to see the damage.
“We saw how this gutter was totally pulled from our yard,” she said. “One of our neighbor’s trampolines ended up in our yard, lots of fallen trees.”
The National Weather Service issued 14 tornado warnings and 8 thunderstorm warnings Monday night, according to the group’s meteorologist, David King, who said their work is continuing.
“While other people are starting to clean up, we’re sending out six different groups to 29 potential damaged paths to our entire forecast area,” said King. “There are a couple of tracks that we are going to be investigating. This is going to be a pretty laborious task, what damage was reported, what can we actually see and can we say that a tornado actually happened?”
Cleanup after the storm
Naperville’s Department of Public Works crews continue to clean up Tuesday morning, including in the Cress Creek and Breckenridge neighborhoods. According to the City of Naperville, several roadways were blocked by fallen trees. The city’s website has a map of impacted streets and intersections to check before you head out on the road.
Clearing roadways is the first priority for the city’s public works crews. They will then tackle clearing sidewalks and any hanging branches over roads and sidewalks, and lastly, pick up downed branches not presenting an immediate hazard.
Naperville electrical outages
The city says nearly 120 residents were without power as of 8:25 a.m. this morning. 94 were within the area bounded by Ogden and 6th avenues and Mill and Main Street, with power there expected to be restored within three hours or less. 24 were in a sector bounded by E. 14th and Ogden avenues and Washington and Loomis streets. Most of those customers should have power back up within four hours, though a handful will have to wait up to eight hours for restoration, due to a broken pole.
If you have a story idea, we want to hear from you!
